Run, Princess Emma!

Princess Emma racing at her party. She couldn't wait to wear her Ariel dress, gloves and hair piece. 

Emma's First Haircut

It was time. Emma's hair was nice and long but a little too "shaggy" so I took her in for a haircut on Tuesday since she was off from school. 

I had a hard time deciding where to take her for this event. Boys are easy - their hair is short and grows out fast. But girls... I contemplated taking her to someone who does mostly grown up hair because I wanted her to have long layers, but in the end I decided to make it easy and take her to a place near Tyler's school that has a kid theme. 

She loved the whole experience. It was super girly. To start, she had her hair washed. 

That was followed by a Barbie jeep and her haircut. 

Of course, there was a TV to distract her. 

Next was a blow dry. 

Followed by clips. 

Her favorite part - nail polish. 

She had the best time ever. 

Her hair -  She had about an inch and a half taken off. You can't notice a big difference but it's definitely cleaner and less shaggy. She is totally a girly girl. 

Emma and Lilah

Taken yesterday. 

Emma the Goat Whisperer

Emma likes animals, but mostly from afar. Except for goats. She will eagerly pet them and feed them. She has had a couple occasions of encountering "hungry" goats and has gotten a little scared, but it hasn't stopped her from going back. 

This is from Saturday at Happy Hollow. I think she would have been happy hanging out with the goats all day. 

Emma's First Day of School 2014

I didn't get a proper picture, but here is Emma changing into her "uwabaki" (indoor shoes) at school. Not smiling, but definitely not crying. Huge improvement from last year. :)



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Exhaustion

This is what happens when someone is exhausted but refuses to nap and throws a tantrum only to be ignored.



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Happy, Sad or In-between Face?

Emma started drawing faces - just eyes and a mouth. Can you see them?



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Emma's Strange Faces

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Lil' Emma

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Sleep Training Attempt No. ?

We have been sleep training Emma again. Yes - again. Somehow, we regressed back to someone staying in her room (that someone being Daddy since T will only let me put him to sleep if I am home) and it was getting to be too much.

Tonight was night 4. It took about 20 minutes and about 4 exits from her room. A huge improvement from the first night when it took about 2 hours.

Sleep training works. Sometimes, it the only way to make kids sleep on their own. Emma still loves us the next morning and doesn't hold a grudge so I think it's all worth it for everyone.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a 10 minutes maximum "ordeal."


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First swim lesson!

She's been ready since 7am.

No More Kitty Cat

Emma has been obsessed with her Hello Kitty bottle. It's a sippy, but close to a bottle, since it's a first stage transitional cup. We knew she was too old for it, but it was comforting to her, so we would only let her use it home. But, she is almost 2 and a half so it was time....

Thank goodness for her obsession with princesses. I took her to Target, found a bottle that has a rubber straw with princesses, and when she saw the princesses she got excited. I told her if we got it she would no longer have "kitty cat bottle" and she would have to use her "princess bottle" and she said ok.

So far it's been a few days and its been good. She has asked for her kitty cat when she is having a moment but it hasn't bad and she has moved on.

Here she is with her new cup coming out of a tantrum. Yay!




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Riding the train with lolo

Vacaville

Hinamatsuri (Girl's Day) 2014

Here is Emma at almost 2 years 4 months in front of her hinamatsuri dolls.






Look how much she has grown in 1 year.







She is in need of a new Japanese outfit. :)

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My superhero

Chopsticks

Both kids are getting pretty good at using their training chopsticks.







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Day 2 of Emma's Sleep Training

5 minutes and 2 trips out of her crib. It was kind of unbelievable. I had to sit outside her door for an extra 10 minutes to make sure.

And, T has been letting Daddy put him to bed too.

Crazy.


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Emma's Back to Sleep Training

Towards the end of 2013, Emma started to want someone to stay with her in her room to fall asleep. It's was no fun. Especially because she use to just let us put her in her crib, roll over, and go to bed. But, since we were going to go on a lengthy vacation that involved some serious jet lag, we decided to let it go and deal with it once we returned.

It's now been over a month since we have been back from our Asia vacation and someone has stayed in her room every night until she falls asleep and she has been coming into our room in the middle of the night and we have welcomed her into our bed because it is the easy thing to do.

No more. We are done. We haven't gotten a full nights sleep in too long so tonight sleep training commenced.

For about an hour I stayed outside her door and every time she came out I would escort her back to her crib. Not sure how many times we did this - maybe 15? She is a persistent little gal.

Hoping that as the nights go by this exercise will be shorter and shorter. And as she figures out how to go to sleep on her own at night she will figure out how to put herself back to sleep in her crib in the middle of the night.

Keeping fingers crossed. What else can we do? Oh - wish for sleep.


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Emma Otanjobi (Birthday) at School

A few days late, but Emma got to celebrate her birthday at school today. She came home with this card.







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Emma's Style

Today Emma picked out boots to wear. I then thought I'd get a headband on her. I hadn't tried in a long time because she's always pulled them off. She kept it on. She even decided that walking in this type outfit required a hand in her pocket. :)









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